Memories Past, Futures Forgotten
by Colie
Summary: Shannon works for a man named Walker. There's not much she doesn't know about where she works. Except for a rather large group of people living in the middle of it... [How will Lucius and Ivy explain to the others the intruder from beyond their borders?]
1. Prologue

_Well, I saw 'The Village' on Saturday and my mind was going crazy with ideas by Sunday night. I'm hoping to make this a fifteen chapter deal so I can finish it, but hey...the story __does what it wants. Leave any questions in a review. Sorry if this chapter sucks..._

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Prologue:  
  
If there were words to describe Shannon Blakely's disappointment, she couldn't think of one. She couldn't even figure out how the world had suddenly begun its rotation while her and her father stood still. But she knew that wasn't really how it had happened. _They_, her and her father, were the ones in motion and the world was barely moving at all. Sure, the road signs and yellow stripes were blurred with movement but it was them moving, not the road.  
  
She flipped to a new station as the radio began to static and continued to stare wordlessly out the window. Soon her father would be asking if she was hungry and not long after that if she was 'all right'. She knew he would know the answer before she said it and inevitably let the conversation lie after telling her if she ever needed to tell him something, she needn't be afraid to.  
  
She couldn't tell him she wasn't ready to accept her mom was dead. She couldn't tell him she wasn't ready to move into a new house in a new state. She wasn't ready to tell him the things she had told her mother over the years.  
  
It amazed her how you could talk to someone one night, and they would be gone the next. It amazed her how fifteen years had passed without her ever realizing how much she really needed her mom. She loved her father and got along with him better than most kids would their father, but the pain she felt after having her mother torn away so violently wasn't something she was quite ready to tell him, though she knew he had to be feeling the same thing. She had, of course, been his wife and the mother of his only daughter.  
  
"Shan?" her fathers' inquisitive voice came. His eyes glanced at her but quickly returned to the road.  
  
"Yeah?" she asked, trying to mask all of the emotions hidden in her heart with boredom in her voice.  
  
"You getting hungry yet?" he asked uncertainly.  
  
"I suppose." She answered, looking ahead to see what town was coming up.  
  
Up ahead was Kaseville. It was only a few hours to Covington.  
  
Four hours had passed and the night had completely blanketed the road by the time Shannon and her father were anywhere near Covington. She was still staring straight out the window, now through the darkness, and her father's eyes kept steady on the road.  
  
In the blackness Shannon could make out a short wall running along side the highway. Her eyes fixated on the fence and followed it a few miles until an opening appeared. A sign was situated on the brick entry way and read clearly by the light, _'Walker Park Reserve'_.  
  
Shannon's mind flickered to the memory of her mother, taking an eight year old Shannon to a wildlife preserve and joyously proclaiming that she wished she could have her own. Maybe her dad would let her visit the reserve during the weekends or something, if it was close enough to their new home.  
  
She smiled and watched the lights disappear behind them. Maybe this was her mother's way of telling her this would all turn out all right...  
  
_Two Days Later..._  
  
Saturday morning dawned early for the Blakely's. Shannon woke up at six and made breakfast for herself, keen to the fact her father didn't eat before noon most days. She was in a much better mood and couldn't help but feel much better that it was Saturday.  
  
She smiled as her father kissed the crown of her head on his way to pick up the newspaper. She turned and moved to stand in the doorway and watch the older man move to the end of the sidewalk.  
  
"Hey, Dad?" she called as he made his way back to the house.  
  
"Yeah?" he returned, looking up from the paper.  
  
"I was wondering... Do you remember that park or reserve or whatever it was we passed on the way up here?" she asked brightly.  
  
"Uh-huh. Why?" he said curiously.  
  
"Well, I was thinking maybe we could go visit or something. You know, get the feel of the area and stuff. What do you say?"  
  
"Sweetie, I don't know if they even give tours or if they're open or anything." He started, unsure of the idea.  
  
"Aw, come on Dad. We could at least drive by. We don't have anything else to do anyway." She whined, her eyes becoming wide and pleading as her head tilted to the side.  
  
"We need to unpack." He pointed out blankly.  
  
"Oh, but we unloaded boxes all yesterday. And we have two weeks before your new job starts and three before my school starts. We'll have tons of time to unpack later." She beseeched with extravagant hand movements.  
  
"Tons of days that aren't Saturday, is that what you mean?" he smiled.  
  
"Now you're just messing with me." She stated, closing the door as her father entered the house.  
  
"All right, we'll see. Just let me look around in the newspaper and have some coffee first. Then we'll go see about your park." He said patting her head as she threw her arms around his neck in gratitude and then bounced off to her room.  
  
After an hour and a half, Shannon and her father were pulling up to the entrance of the park. There was what looked like an information building and a green jeep about 100 yards up the road. Their car found its way to the small lot and they got out, exchanging happy glances. Surely, if it was closed, there would have been a gate blocking the entrance.  
  
The information building was indeed a place for visitors, as they soon realized. Shannon knocked on the door and a young man, no older than twenty, opened it. He smiled and looked at the strangers.  
  
Kevin Lupinski loved the fact that his job now allowed the option of guided tours by any of the park officials, under certain rules of course.  
  
"We were wondering if the park was open to the public." Shannon's father stated.  
  
"We give guided tours, if that's what you mean." Kevin replied happily.  
  
"That'd be great. Does there have to be a big group or anything?" Shannon spoke up, looking hopeful.  
  
"No. I'd be happy to be your guide." He said smiling.  
  
"Cool. Is that all right with you, Dad?" she asked eagerly.  
  
"Sure, I don't mind. Do we need our car?" he asked.  
  
"No sir. We use the park cars." Kevin supplied happily.  
  
"Oh. Okay, then. We're ready when you are." Shannon's father said, pocketing his keys.  
  
Little did they know the effect the tour would end up having on Shannon's future.

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_A/N: Kevin Lupinski, if you don't remember, is the patrol guard who helps Ivy Walker. And, yes, I know the park wouldn't give tours, but I'll give an explanation in the next chapter. See you really soon, as I'm about to start on the next chapter._


	2. Rising to the Top

**Memories Past, Futures Forgotten**

**_Chapter One: Rising to the Top_**

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****

_Alas! you generations of men!_

_Even while you live you are next to nothing!_

_Has any man won for himself_

_More than the shadow of happiness,_

_A shadow that swiftly fades away?___

_Oedipus, now as I look on you,_

_See your ruin, how can I say that_

_Mortal man can be happy_

-_Oedipus the King_: Sophocles

- James Bond was no better at what he did than Shannon was at what she did. Well, except for the occasional midnight chase. He was probably better at that. -

* * *

Shannon had been living in Covington for almost twenty years now, and was currently one of the least recognizable at the grocery store by far. Except by her co-workers, that is. She was the head of the security and 'boss' to almost everyone at the _Walker Park Reserve_.

She looked up warily as Elliot Garner entered her office. He was a small kid, only 5'7 and couldn't have weighed anymore than Shannon herself even though he was at least 20, probably 25 years old. She knew the instant he stepped in what he was there about. She had been hearing complaints for weeks about sounds in the walled area of the park.

"Elliot, whatever brings you to this neck of the woods?" she said, looking over a few of the new job applications. She knew several of the employees would be dropping their shifts, and inevitably the park, soon because of those noises.

"I wanted to report some strange-" he began.

"El, I'm telling you now, I don't want to hear the words 'noise' and 'woods' coming out of your mouth." She cut him off warningly.

"Okay, I heard sounds coming from the forest that didn't sound like squirrels." He complied childishly.

"Damn it, Elliot, not you too. I told you I didn't want to hear any bull about noises from the woods. I get enough of that crap from the night shifts. Please don't join the ranks of those wusses." She said moving the papers out of her way and giving Elliot her full attention.

"But I'm telling you Blakely, there's something freaky in there. I heard it." He argued.

"Oh yeah? And what exactly did it sound like?" she said, humoring him slightly.

Elliot did a poor imitation of the sound he swore he'd heard.

"It sounds like a dying cow." Shannon stated blankly.

"Well, there you go. Cows aren't native to these woods." Elliot reasoned quite pointlessly.

"Ai…Elliot, cows aren't native to _any_ woods." She pointed out.

"Exactly."

Shannon shook her head at the hopeless kid. "You're not switching shifts with anyone and I know you don't want my shift as it's one of the late shifts. Get. Over. It."

"But what if it's carnivorous?" he tried to reason.

"There's a ten foot wall in between you and the woods. That'd have to be one tall carnivorous dying cow."

Somehow Shannon's words didn't comfort Elliot but he walked out never the less, and more importantly with the same schedule he'd walked in with.

* * *

Kevin Lupinski smiled as he walked into Shannon's office. He knew why Elliot Garner had visited her on this lovely day.

"Good morning, Ms. Blakely." He joked.

"Good afternoon, you mean, Mr. Lupinski." She joked back.

"So the boys runnin' the late shifts are chickening out again?" he asked knowingly.

"Of course. Every time we get a new batch. They think something's 'in the woods'. They've read too many Stephen King novels in my opinion." She informed, rolling her eyes. Kevin laughed.

"You were just as interested in the other side of the wall when you first came here too."

"You encouraged it." Shannon defended.

"I only stated that no one really knows what's on the other side."

"And supplied a few interesting theories, if memory serves me. Though we both know it's probably a bunch of trees with roaming wildlife. They're probably doing a hundred-year experiment on natural selection." She stated with a wave of her hand.

"Oh, really? Is that what it is? That's not something I would've guessed." Kevin said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah? What would you have guessed?" she challenged.

"I don't think you really need to know." He answered nonchalantly.

Shannon paused, examining the slightly older man carefully. "Is there something you know about this place that I don't?" she queried. Kevin outright laughed.

"Well, there's a story that people live in there, surviving in the wilderness as a community of their own, as civilized as any of ours." He said, using the mysterious tone he used for the tales he enjoyed telling Shannon and the little girl who visited her on occasion. Well, not really all that little, as Kevin suspected she was the same age as Shannon, but still, she was younger than him. They were the only people he told all the speculations people came up with, so not to rise suspicion in anyone willing to venture into the woods.

"Uh-huh. I think I liked the werewolf idea from a few years back better. That one's kinda… out there. I mean, who in there right mind would live in the middle of that forest? And never venture out?" she said skeptically.

"I don't make up the stories, I just tell them." Kevin admitted in mock supplication.

"Well, you need to go back and tell who ever told you that to get a better story." She said with a disappointed sigh.

"I'll do that if I ever see them again. You hungry?" he responded.

"Starved, actually." Shannon admitted.

"Do you wanna go catch lunch early? I was thinking maybe you could fix my CV radio on the way back. Someone's been messing with it again when they were giving tours, I think."

"Sure. But I won't promise I can always fix that damn radio."

* * *

Shannon hit her palm hard against the horn of her SUV. The traffic in Covington had, apparently, never learned to yield as the freeway was backed up two exits before Shannon's. Her shift started in ten minutes and it was fifteen minutes to the park off her exit, the one with all the traffic blocking it. After about six minutes of delay, the cars started to inch forward and eventually move out of the way enough for Shannon to drive down the outside line of the highway and to her exit, from which she sped like a bat out of Hell to get to her work.

As she pulled through the gates she saw the young man she was relieving and waved him good night. He exited and she got out of the car to close the gates as their car left. Getting back in her car she turned on the radio, some old station, and drove around to make her nightly round.

It had only been a year before she'd arrived that they'd began giving tours of the park of the places not restricted by walls and the event had turned out to be quite profitable in time. They didn't start charging for tours until after the fourth year, and by then Shannon was already a volunteer. She took the job permanently two years later, when she was nineteen. Ever since the tours began the occasional kid would stray into the park and try to jump the fences or simply hang out at a picnic area smoking and drinking.

Shannon smiled as an old Billy Joel song, Piano Man, came on and drowned out the rustling of the trees outside the car. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the boys were making up the noises. As long as she'd worked there, she'd never heard any.

_He says, "Son, can you play me a melody?  
I'm not really sure how it goes  
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete  
When I wore a younger man's clothes"_

Her lips moved unconsciously in tune with the words and she was completely safe in her car, she felt. Even if there was something in the woods… The thought startled Shannon as it crossed her mind. Not that there might be something in the woods, but that she was actually being serious when she entertained the thought. She shook away the notion and continued enjoying the song.

_And the waitress is practicing politics  
As the businessmen slowly get stoned  
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness  
But it's better than drinkin' alone_

"What the-?" She began, slamming on her brakes. She could have sworn she just saw two thin figures run across the road and to the wall that was off limits to everyone.

Making sense of what she'd seen, she pulled over where she'd seen the figures and, sure enough, the wall was shaking slightly as though someone had just scaled it as quickly as possible. "Why are they always on my clock?" she mumbled as she crawled out of the car with her cell phone, because no one was there to respond on the CV, and flashlight.

Jumping on the back bumper she found she had parked close enough to the fence that she could stand on top of the car and jump over. From the top of the vehicle, without jumping over she could see the two assailants – a boy and a girl, in their late teens and dressed in jeans and white t-shirts.

This was going to be an easy chase. Or at least, that's what she thought…

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A/N: I wanted this to be longer, but hey, what can you do, right? 'The Village' may be appearing in the next chapter, so do stick around. Oh, and Midnight Dove, I'd call myself a Kevin fan. Actually, he'll be appearing in Shannon's flashbacks and he's very amicable in this story.

For those of you wondering, the 'little girl' Kevin is referring to is just one of Shannon's best friends, no one extremely central to the plot. Oh, and the little quote after the Sophocles excerpt is just a little fun thing to read and it gives a hint about the chapter. And if you read the Sophocles quote, try to act as if someone is talking to the elders of the village.

See you around soon,

-Colie the redhead who's computer desk is leaving lacerations on her forearms


	3. Sing us a Song

**Memories Past, Futures Forgotten**

**_Sing us a Song_**

_She was one of our [__England__'s] more frumpy queens… they're all frumpy, aren't they? Because it's a bad idea when cousins marry! Bottom of the gene pool, you know. You're just scraping the barrel there, "We've haven't got enough for any more of you royals there, sorry." First rule of genetics: spread the genes apart! _

– Eddie Izzard, _'Dress to Kill'_

_---_

'_Too late, too late you see the path of wisdom!_'

- Antigone, '_Antigone_': Sophocles

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Oh yeah, contrary to popular belief, I don't own 'The Village' or any of its characters. But according to a law created in 1989, I do own Shannon Blakely, even if I haven't bought a little © sign for her.

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Ten minutes later, Shannon had effectively been chasing the assailants for ten minutes. In other words, she accomplished nothing but breaking a sweat and nearly twisting her ankle on brush. Her breathing was becoming ragged and she stopped to catch it. 

Far off in the darkness she heard a car start. Her car, she knew instantly, damning the ten second stall on the piece of junk SUV that identified it to her every time. She tried to hear the car drive off, but her own breathing was making it very hard.

A sudden feeling of terror washed over her, filling her mind with inexplicable horrors of the fate she might encounter upon being lost in the forest. Calming down slightly she tried to remember which way she had been going last. After realizing she had no idea, she realized she still had her cell phone.

'_Oh, happy day!_' she thought, flipping open the cover. But, much to Shannon's dismay, the screen read 'roaming: out of service'. She choked the phone for a few minutes before managing another logical thought. The Park had never given a training in how to find your way out of the woods, because no one was allowed in them anyway, but Shannon recalled a few from television.

Looking up to the sky, she realized she couldn't see through the leaves. That was one idea gone. Looking for moss on rocks would do no good; she couldn't remember what side it grew on. She was starting to wish she had marked trees on the way back here or checked which way the wind was blowing.

Without any other choice, she began walking aimlessly, in hope of finding the wall and not anything else. Somehow her own speculations of tall carnivorous dying cows were making herself uneasy as she passed by tree after tree. Up ahead less than 10 yards, she could see the trees thinning out. Running at a slow jog, she hurried to the spot, and was pleasantly surprised to find a gravel path leading in both directions. Now, if she only knew which way to go.

Deciding she was bound to get out either way, even if one way was painstakingly longer, she took a right. And a very long right as she soon discovered. Disappointingly, the road ended abruptly about half a mile, or what felt like a mile at least, when the gravel just blended into the leaves and dirt. Sighing, Shannon turned around and thought about starting down the other way.

An impulse came upon her so strong when she even thought about traveling back down that way it gave her an urge to run as fast as she could any other direction. So she did, she abandoned the road and ran to the right of the road, hoping to maybe outrun her childish fears. After about ten minutes of sprinting, she could no longer see the road, or much of anything for that matter. The trees had begun to space themselves wider apart, alleviating her tendency to bump into them. This was quite a relief as she had raced headlong into a tree when she was running.

Slowing down, she caught her breath and walked farther in the direction she had been sprinting, the fear of something scary beyond all reason following her still lingered in her mind but she tried to block out those thoughts. She was quite sure she had run a mile, maybe two after thinking about werewolves chasing after her. But she remembered, the quarter moon that had been out when she was on the freeway, and that relaxed her a good deal.

Shannon was usually a reasonable person, logical and not keen to old wives tales, but the thought that she was alone in the woods with no way of communication, no food, and no one knowing where she was frightened her terribly, like no monster usually could.

She reached down to her pocket, expecting to find her cell phone and check to see if perhaps she had wandered into her service area again, only to find it was gone. Looking down, stupidly, she realized all her running must have shook the phone out of her pocket, only to lie uselessly on the forest floor.

"Why am I feeling like Oedipus on the day of Iocasta's, ow, sui-"**[AN 1]** she began, then intervening with an 'ow' as she banged her hip against an overturned tree root. That or a rather short and branchy tree. She was cut off by her own yelp as she slipped, falling forward from a trip on a rock in the loose soil. She frowned as she realized she wasn't face-down in the dirt with a mouthful of fertilizer.

Actually, she wasn't face down in anything. Her head was void of a resting place while her shoulders and torso rested most uncomfortably on the ground. She jerked herself backward and onto her feet in great haste. Peering into the darkness she tried to see what it was she had almost fallen from. Her eyes could make out a blurry blackness in front of her, but no more than what she could tell from falling in the first place.

Slowly, she kneeled down and cautiously reached her shaking hand forward towards the shadows to which she almost was cast. She could feel the edge of a pit of some sort and a very muddy one at that. Crawling on her hands and her knees she carefully made her way around the hole and quickly ran once she was sure she wouldn't fall in it. Either it was an animal's trap or someone was hunting an animal. Her thoughts jumped immediately to a hog trap, serving to quicken her pace even more.

A hog was definitely not something she wanted to meet in the dark when she had been banging into trees all night. A thought quickly invaded her mind.

"How very Edgar Allan Poe." She said allowed. She recalled reading the _Pit and the Pendulum_ for English one year and if she was correct, the same thing that just happened to her happened to the guy in that story. But sadly, like most everything else that night, the thought rang aloud other suspicions, like one of the other Poe stories she had read, _Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather_. That had been, be far one of the creepiest things she had read, aside from Stephen King's two – '_the Cycle of the Werewolf_' and the cover illustration story to '_Everything's Eventual_'. She always knew having a best friend obsessed with horror stories and urban legends would turn out for the worst.

Thinking of those things she picked up her pace again, farther away from the stupid hole. Her reasonability was starting to return and she couldn't help but wonder, "Why the hell would someone dig a hole in the middle of an off-limits forest?"

Resolving to be positive, she decided to sing a song. Not surprisingly, the only song that jumped to mind was the one she had been listening to before she had left her car – Piano Man.

_Sing us a song, you're the piano man  
Sing us a song tonight  
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody  
And you've got us feelin' alright_

She began shakily, her eyes searching desperately for man-made light, her sight adjusted to the darkness.

_And the piano, it sounds like a carnival  
and the microphone smells like a beer  
and they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar  
and say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"  
  
Oh, la la la, de de da  
La la, de de da da da_

She hummed at the beginning, having forgotten the words and decided to try another song. Golden Earring's song 'Ce Soir' came to mind and the only verse she knew, she hummed:

_Sing your song, you can't go wrong  
Attempted his business adviser  
No need for alarm  
you'll come to no harm  
He didn't mention the sniper  
  
Ce soir, Ce soir  
Assassination d'un rock 'n roll star_

Deciding the song was a bit strange for a midnight stroll in a forbidden forest, she quickly stopped. "Favorite song, favorite song…" The only one she could think of, other than 'Little Red Riding Hood' and she certainly wasn't going to sing that at this time and place, was Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.

_And I'd give up forever to touch you _

_Cause__ I know that you feel me somehow_

She started to shiver slightly as the wind blew harder, just enough to lift her damp locks of the back of her neck. She had begun to regret cutting her hair when it was sticking to the back of her neck, itching as she began to sweat.

_You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be _

_And I don't want to go home right now_

She continued on, her eyes straining as she became tired, wishing to lie down and sleep. Somewhere near, she could hear water and that somehow comforted her. But if only she knew which way it came from.

_And all I can taste is this moment _

_And all I can breathe is your life_

She could see the stream now, gliding gently over stones and gurgling invitingly. She moved towards it, dropping down beside it and cupping some with her hands. After a few sips she stopped and stood up. You were supposed to move along the river, which ever way it flows, right? Wouldn't that apply for a stream too?

She walked along side the river a few minutes before another thought entered her head. You were supposed to move along rivers because all of them flowed south. All except the Nile, that was. Streams didn't necessarily follow those rules. Figuring no real time was lost, she moved to the opposite bank of the stream with a quick jump.

_Cause sooner or later it's over _

_I just don't want to miss you tonight_

She begun singing again, finding that the song strengthened her courage, allowing her to think less about what could possible be waiting for her.

_And I don't want the world to see me _

_Cause__ I don't think that they'd understand _

_When everything's made to be broken_

The songs' words faltered in her throat. An odor, a strange one met her nose. She couldn't quite identify it, but she was pretty sure it wasn't something one normally could smell in the woods. Perhaps it was manmade…

_I just want you to know who I am_

_And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming _

_Or the moment of truth in your lies_

She was getting closer to the smell, as it was getting stronger. By the time she was close enough to tell what it was; it was too late to turn back. Her eyes fixated, in horror, on a decaying carcass laying half on a rock and half off, flies beginning to feed on the dead animal. What beast could skin something like that? Deciding it for the best she moved away, and began singing again to build her strength.

_When everything feels like the movies_

Turning around so her back was to the poor creature, she made to move on forward. Only, what caught her sight made her stop in her tracks.

_Yeah, you'd bleed just to know you're alive_

A small village lied in the middle of a clearing, smoke rising from a few of the chimneys, making it seem very picturesque. A few lights emitted from stands dotting the town. Closer to her, hardly a foot or two away, were flag stands, yellow cloths flapping in the wind ever so slightly. Oh, she was definitely ready to bleed…

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any song used here or the people who sing them. Heck, I don't even own the albums they're on. 

**[AN 1]** A musing on Oedipus Rex, aka Oedipus the King. Basically, he was having a really bad day – he found out a prophesy had come true, one he had been avoiding a long time, and it stated he would marry his mother, kill his father, and well, let's face it – that's bad. Oh, and the problem – he was adopted, so he didn't really know who his parents were. And he had kids by his mother (who was Iocasta, yeah – she killed herself and then Oedipus rendered himself blind.). Yes, Shannon was over-exaggerating.

If you don't get why she's ready to bleed, read the last line of the song that she sung.

Sorry that it's kind of left at a cliffhanger but I've had most of this done for two days and been meaning to post it. It's over two thousand words, actually.

Oh, and the Eddie Izzard quote about the gene pools- my mom and best friends' theory on what would eventually happen in the village. "Wouldn't they all be cousins and siblings after a while?" They're sick, I know. Sorry for the wait and I hope to have the next chapter up soon!

I'm out. Drop a review.


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